As announced on January 26, 2016; we have embarked on an aggressive project to replace our current public-safety grade emergency responder alerting system with a modern and robust third-party solution that will maintain current capabilities while enhancing information sharing capabilities at the dispatch, agency and end user levels.

We anticipate Public Safety Committee approval to advance our vendor recommendation to the full Erie County Legislature as early as next week. In the meantime, we need you to start doing some homework on your end as we prepare for implementation together.

The first two pieces of information we need is contact information for two key positions:

• System Administrator – This person has the authority to make decisions about agency and end user implementation, configuration, access, rights and privileges. This person should be a chief or administrative officer who is tech-savvy and responsive to timely electronic communications from our office or their dispatch center as it relates to implementation, configuration and use of this system. They will monitor and direct the work of the Data Coordinator(s).
• Data Entry Coordinator(s) – This person is authorized and responsible for entering your agency’s information as well as setting up and maintaining end user accounts, rights and privileges as directed by the System Administrator. They will be the ones coordinating the validity of information entered and ensuring that discipline is maintained in entering information consistently.
• This person should be a trusted member who is comfortable and adept at data entry and utilizing database software and apps. They too must be responsive to timely electronic communications from our office or their dispatch center as it relates to implementation, configuration and use of this system. They may also be a good candidate for training end users in your agency.
• While it’s recommended that a back-up person be assigned to this position, having more than two data coordinators is discouraged in that it could create inconsistencies in how information is entered or accounts are configured.

Please complete and return the attached contact form to our office as soon as possible. Our next communication should outline an anticipated timeline for all of the steps necessary for system implementation and configuration.

We are excited to be moving forward with this significant evolution of secondary emergency alerting capabilities in Erie County and we know you’ll have lots of good questions, so please be patient until we have more specifics to share and stay tuned to all of our normal outreach channels.

Stay tuned to fax, email and our social media channels for frequent updates as this system is implemented. Thanks.

ALERTING SYSTEM AGENCY CONTACT FORM: http://www2.erie.gov/fire/sites/www2.erie.gov.fire/files/Memo-Alerting System Replacement160310F.pdf